BT Group is set to wave goodbye to one of the UK's first Internet access services, replacing its BT OpenWorld brand with a new joint venture with Web veteran Yahoo.
In September, the two firms will launch a broadband service called 'BT Yahoo! Broadband'. teaming two brands well known to Britain's growing Internet market.
BT, the UK's dominant fixed-line carrier, hopes that Yahoo's younger, more hip brand and its base of 15 million monthly web visitors will kickstart subscriptions at its consumer broadband offering, currently known as BT OpenWorld.
OpenWorld will be renamed this autumn with customers being migrated to the renamed service at that time. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Competition from another BT product, the no-frills BT Broadband product, has put a crimp on demand for OpenWorld in the past year, analysts say, eating into margins and average revenues per user (ARPU). BT Broadband is priced at £27 sterling, three pounds cheaper than OpenWorld.
BT said the co-branded Yahoo offering would be a step up as it would feature Yahoo news headlines and other content rather than BT's more limited editorial fare.
